Issue Notes
Original Series Issue #1: After the civil war, Collateral Damage set up a base (The Rubble) and defeated rampaging neo-nazi supervillain Captain Panzer and his souped-up King Tiger. Afterwards, they decided to head to Lightbender’s sanctuary in the Astral Plane, accessible only by a portal hidden in the sewers. On the way, Yang found an abused boy named Tommy (see above) and took him under his wing. They were also jumped by some unfortunate thugs. When they reached Lightbender’s sanctuary, Lightbender attempted to use his power-enhancement machine, but he needed to find a man called Moriarty, an agent of his mother. When the team got back from capturing Moriarity, Tommy had drunk several bottles of godly ichor and displayed several superpowers. Issue #2: When the team got back from the Astral Plane, they went to take Tommy home, but found his apartment aflame. Having rescued everyone inside but Tommy’s stepdad, who was missing, Yang decided to remain behind with Tommy and see that he got situated somewhere good. Lightbender and Malice headed back to The Rubble to catch some z’s. Several hours later, the crime alarm alerted them to a terrorist takeover of a business skyscraper downtown. When they arrived, another hero, Black Hawk, was already there. The duo decided to go in first, and fought with the terrorists, who were led by the destructo-mainiac Demolition Man. In the battle, Lightbender was injured severely, but the duo held out long enough for Black Hawk to help them take down Demolition Man and his dirty bomb before he could hurt anyone. At the end of the issue, Malice and Lightbender were sitting in an ambulance, exhausted, pondering the possible outcome of their newly developing romantic relationship. Issue #3: While sitting in the hospital, recovering from their injuries, Lightbender and Malice met a new applicant to the team, Lovell (Chris), a former British royal guard. Moriarty also visited with the key to Lightbender’s mother’s palace. After they left the hospital, the duo went for pizza, rescued some people from a car crash, and prevented a hold-up. They then decided to go to Lightbender’s home realm and try to break into his (former) palace. Upon arrival, they were confronted by a platoon of royal guards, which the duo made short work of. They then proceeded to the road to the palace, where they met a strange snake-person chauffeur who offered them a ride to the palace. Malice decided to take the chauffeur up on his offer, while Lightbender used his super speed to run to the palace instead. Meanwhile, the snake-person drove to a clearing and threatened Malice. When she convinced him that he did not work for the Queen’s secret police, he revealed that his name was Adder, a member of the resistance. Upon reaching the palace, the trio split up, with Lightbender and Adder sneaking into the palace through a rear entrance, while Malice bluffed her way in as a power-control tutor for the royal family. The ploy worked, and Lightbender was reunited with his younger brother. Issue #4: Somehow, Vega was alerted to Lightbender’s presence. As he searched the room, Lightbender, Malice, and Adder punched through the wall and ran for it. However, Vega caught up with them. Lightbender was unable to reason with his brother, and a lightsaber battle ensued. In the end, Lightbender beheaded his brother. When Arcturus caught up with them, she was (of course) devastated, as the party made good on their escape. When the team got back to Halcyon City, they took naps. Afterwards, Lightbender and Malice went on a date to Malice’s aunts house, where they had their first kiss. Issue #5: After the date, Lightbender and Malice went back to the base, and were awakened by a spaceship crashing in the park nearby. After fighting the alien within and recruiting him to the team, the pair left him at the base to study Earth and went Downtown. There, they spotted a sniper trying to assassinate the mayor. However, the assassin fled after the team chased him and it became clear he was a spider mutant. The duo traced the assassin to a warehouse and met another super named Equinox, who fought with a bow and arrow. After a short fight, they captured the assassin, who turned out to be gunning for Ryan J. Fisher, head of Fisher Innovation Corporation, for turning him into a spider person. The team then headed back to base to check on their new alien buddy and give Equinox a tour. Issue #6: Having finished the tour, the team was interrupted by the appearance of the power-armor clad protege super The Regulator, who wished to join the team. After a short fight, he was admitted. The team was then called to investigate a strange storm forming over Halcyon City's center. The team arrived and began trying to figure out the storm when strange lightning bolts began striking the center of the square repeatedly. After they stooped, a massive alien tripod rose from beneath the square and began wreaking havoc with its heat rays. The team managed to stop the tripod with some difficulty, Malice having to save Lightbender from being crushed beneath the massive machine as it fell. Issue #7: Having defeated the tripod, the team decided to journey once more to Lightbenders realm to find the artifact that would allow him to defeat his mother. Once there, they met with Adder, and decided the best course of action would be to raid the Royal Museum's deep storage to see if they could find the artifact. As Malice, The Regulator, and Adder fought the guards out front, Lightbender sneaked in through the back and searched the deep storage. He found a mysterious box and brought it out. While Malice and The Regulator looted magic weapons from the museum, Adder and Lightbender opened the box and found a mysterious crystal ball. They returned to Lightbenders sanctuary to figure out how the ball worked, and discovered that it could only be activated by a ritual involving a certain type of stone, which could only be found in the dangerous Fire Swamp. The team traveled to the Fire Swamp, braved its dangers, and found a cave. Inside the cave were thousands of blind, mutated rats and their abomination of a queen. Having killed the rats, the team took some of the rock and performed the ritual back at Lightbenders sanctuary. The ritual allowed Lightbender to communicate with the Dark Lord Sauron, who informed him that the artifact was located in a faraway and hidden sanctuary, surrounded by magical defenses. Issue #8: The team reached the sanctuary, a temple carved into the face of a mountain. The heroes defeated the two massive animate stone statues out front and entered the temple. Having reached the other side of the main room, the heroes were suddenly faced by rank upon rank of skeletal warriors, who bowed before Lightbender. The warriors followed them as they progressed to the next room, a cavern with a black river flowing down the center with a footbridge over it. Lightbender used his dark visions to discover that the river would kill any living creature that crossed it unless something or someone was sacrificed to it. As the heroes argued over who was going to sacrifice one of those neat magic swords, Adder threw his dead wife's wedding ring into the river, and it allowed them to pass. The next cavern contained seven potions on a table, with a rhyme inscribed on a plaque nearby. Having figured out through clues and mishaps which of the potions were deadly and which were not, the heroes continued down the next corridor, only to be blocked by a mysterious metal door. It took some time to open, and when they did, the heroes found themselves in an eerie, foggy forest with no signs of life apart from leafless black trees and an unusually flat ground. They progressed through the forest, quickly realizing that if they split off from the group for even a second, they would be teleported away and get lost. They also began seeing things out of the corners of their eyes, and they realized that their skeleton army was slowly dwindling... Issue #9: Having defeated a horde of mysterious shadow people, the fog lifted and the heroes went through another magic door back into the temple. There they entered the final cavern, a tomb for a long-forgotten king. Inside a large stone sarcophagus, Lightbender discovered the artifact he sought: a sword powerful enough to slay his mother and avert his doom. The skeletons disintegrated, freed at last from their vigil. The team hopped through a portal and returned to Halcyon City, except for Adder, who presumably returned to his own dimension. Returning to the base for a power nap, the team was surprised to find a surprisingly large and well-dressed CD delivery man named Grzybów. It turned out that this man had gravitational manipulation, and after the initiation fight, he was accepted into the team. Lightbender decided that Equinox, the now the team’s second most recent addition, should fight a supervillain in order to get used to how they operated. Luckily, the Halcyon City Stock Exchange was being robbed by the notorious criminal mastermind Badman. When the team arrived, they were confronted by Badman, his team of paramilitary thugs, and their old enemy Captain Panzer, now piloting a massive mechsuit. As The Regulator and Malice battled Panzer, Lightbender took out the the thugs and Equinox sniped Badman in the knee with her bow, crippling him. Malice and The Regulator dueled Panzer to a standstill, leaving Lightbender to finish the job as he telekinetically pulled Panzer from his mech, leaving him exposed. Unfortunately, Equinox battered Panzer with her quiver, triggering one of her explosive arrows, mortally wounding Panzer and injuring herself.